The tubax is a modified

contrabass saxophone The contrabass saxophone is the second-lowest-pitched extant member of the saxophone family proper. It is extremely large (twice the length of tubing of the baritone saxophone, with a bore twice as wide, standing 1.9 meters tall, or 6 feet 4 i ...

developed in 1999 by the German instrument maker Benedikt Eppelsheim. Although it has the same fingering as the saxophone, it has a narrower bore, smaller mouthpiece, and more compactly folded tubing. The tubax exists in E♭

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

and B♭ or C subcontrabass sizes. Its name is a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of words

History

The first size of tubax to be developed was the E♭ tubax. It first appeared in 1998, and was intended as a more practical alternative to the somewhat unwieldy contrabass saxophone. The larger B♭ tubax appeared soon after and is equivalent to the subcontrabass saxophone, which although envisioned by

Adolphe Sax Antoine-Joseph "Adolphe" Sax (; 6 November 1814 – 4 February 1894) was a Belgian inventor and musician who invented the saxophone in the early 1840s, patenting it in 1846. He also invented the saxotromba, saxhorn and saxtuba. He played the f ...

in his 1846 patent, was only first built in 2010 by Brazilian manufacturer J'Élle Stainer. This subcontrabass size is also available in C, but only one model has been manufactured, sold to Thomas Mejer of

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in July 2002.

Construction

The E♭ and B♭ tubax have the same lengths of tubing and ranges as the contrabass and subcontrabass saxophones respectively, but are much more compact. They are built with a narrower bore somewhere between a regular saxophone and a

contrabass sarrusophone The contrabass sarrusophone is the deepest of the family of sarrusophones, and was made in three sizes. The EE version was the only sarrusophone that was ever mass-produced in the United States. It was made by companies such as Gautrot, Couesnon, ...

, and use comparitively smaller

baritone A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the ...

bass saxophone The bass saxophone is one of the lowest-pitched members of the saxophone family—larger and lower than the more common baritone saxophone. It was likely the first type of saxophone built by Adolphe Sax, as first observed by Berlioz in 1842. It ...

mouthpieces. The tubax is folded four times to stand only high for the E♭ tubax, not much taller than a

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contrab ...

, yet an octave lower. Similarly, the B♭ tubax stands tall, nearly half of the enormous height of an equivalent subcontrabass saxophone. These smaller sizes and more accessible key placements result in more portable and ergonomical instruments. These changes result in a more focused and compact

timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voices and musica ...

than that of the full-sized saxophones, and have also lead to some debate over whether the tubax is really a member of the

saxophone family The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pro ...

Notable tubax performers

* Paul Cohen * Yo-yo Su * Dror Feiler * Blaise Garza *

Vinny Golia Vinny Golia (born March 1, 1946) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist specializing in woodwind instruments. He performs in the genres of contemporary music, jazz, free jazz, and free improvisation. Career As a composer, Golia fuse ...

Mats Gustafsson Mats Olof Gustafsson (born 29 October 1964) is a Swedish free jazz saxophone player. Career Gustafsson came to the attention of lovers of improvised music as part of a duo with Christian Munthe (started in 1986), as member of Gunter Chri ...

* Oliver Saar *

Jarno Sarkula Jarno Sarkula (4 August 1973 – 12 July 2020) was a Finnish musician and one-time TV-personality. Sarkula was born in Vantaa. As a musician, he first became known with the band Höyry-kone ("Steam-Engine"). Sarkula wrote music for the ban ...

Steffen Schorn Steffen Schorn (born 26 September 1967 in Aalen) is a German jazz musician (saxophone and other Woodwind instruments, composition). He is one of the most outstanding musicians and composers of German jazz and contemporary music. He is also the d ...

* Jim Sheppard* * Marcus Weiss

References

External links

Benedikt Eppelsheim Website

Fred Bayer's Tubax Page

Article about CD featuring tubax

tubax -- earthquake saxophone Masayuki Kuroda's page

Listening

MP3 of a tubax being played by Randy Emerick, with the Jerry Fischer Orchestra, Hollywood Florida (playing "Stardust", arr. by Mike Lewis)

MP3 of two B♭ subcontrabass tubaxes (overdubbed), playing movement 1 of ''Duet for Basses''
by Walter S. Hartley, performed by Jay C. Easton Saxophones Contrabass instruments 1999 musical instruments {{SingleReed-instrument-stub